Lenore - Elemental Photography

I personally swear by my Mastercraft but I think that's a Canadian only model. For trade shows and conventions we buy the Wagner model usually from Amazon or I think Harbor freight and like those a lot but they do have some burn off factory smell when you start.

The biggest thing I will suggest is making sure it has a finger trigger, not a back based button. You want to be able to control it one handed while you heat things in the other hand (or you end up trying to turn it off with your nose, she says from experience)

Discworld QOTD, from The Truth

“Are you sure you’re allowed to do this?” she said.

“No! I’m not! I won’t know until after I’ve done it! That’s why I’ve got to do it! Then I’ll know!”

danmei specializes in the fantasy that two people could have wild uninterrupted sex with that much hair flying around

In short: 85% of Pacific Drive was fantastic, but the ending was a letdown. If you adore the core gameplay loop at the start, or driving games, it's a fun play! But if you are looking for satisfying narrative conclusions, it's a miss.
Also there is NOT ENOUGH FIC for this game. /shakes fist
/end

I had expected I would make this an attempt to see how 'bad' it would be and plan my upgrades after that, because my last Deep Zone run had been rough, and then this one was Baby Steps in comparison. So a second letdown from all the buildup. /26

Basically I feel like the ending was RIGHT THERE and they wiffed it, and I am sad it both didn't stick said landing and the gameplay loop at the end wasn't needed to finish the game, because I didn't have 1/3 of the upgrades and went through fine. /25

And the narrative of the game is 'yes, I chose to stay, I am part of this zone now and want to learn more with all of you'. And that ties into the idea of these Remnants that connect to people and drive them to understand messages and stories and Do Things and.../24

Or I choose to 'go back' and I roll into the garage and my support cast are like, oh! You're back! That did something! You're no longer possessed! You're safe now, or as safe as you can be in this hellhole, but I guess the Zone possesses us all a bit and we can't leave, we're part of it now. /23

I feel like if I had the choice - that anything I did at the end mattered - that if I had 'left' and walked out of the Zone and ended up on the side of the road and maybe seen a gas station or some cars and I had to hitchhike or make my way along normal roads/vegetation while the credits rolled /22

and we don't have answers to the Big Event they were trying to understand, it's just 'you're done now, congrats, keep uncovering more' and it feels like such a missed opportunity? Like they had written this world but never actually decided what was going on, so there aren't answers to be had /21

There is also no outside communication, so there's no indication of where the research is going to go. If I stay and help Francis learn more, what is the end, exactly? If he dies, where does the research go? Who does it benefit? We don't have those motivators /20

The thing is there has been the implication the whole time that you/everyone are trapped. The area is walled off. It's difficult to get in or out. So for Oppy to dip just like that is.. odd. There's no indication at all that it might be difficult, she's just gone. /19

After that you just get to... explore the Hellhole. Francis (apparently) will talk to you from time to time but there's no more missions or anything. Just go find all the things and enjoy the gameplay loop. /18

These are still voices - you still have not met anyone. She tells Francis (he who remains) to stay and study and discover... Stuff. With you. And then she is gone. /17

Oppy, who was lead scientist for all this chaos and has stayed to 'find out what happened' and also because she'd been driven to try to fix what had gone wrong, says she's going to leave (as her ghost husband had suggested she do) and asks you to stay in the zone with the remaining survivor. /16

There is no choice. I emerge from TV Catacombs to find my car waiting for me. I get in and drive to a pillar of light (usual for the game) and am teleported, as always, back to the garage. The voices say "We did it". I am no longer possessed. I am free from the car. Hurrah! /15

You hear inbetween/after the ghosts that Power Is Surging/Can't Hold It Captain and other statements and 'you need to come back!' so, obviously this is where I expect to have that choice. Do I go back? Do I go forward? /14

Now I am not entirely mad about that - our support cast gets a few good moments of feeling for one another/grief for the dead/some closure and it's very sweet. It's just odd to give us this while I walk through... Liminal Space TV Storage. /13

Instead, in the end, you are urged to drive into that Radiation Well Of Doom (with the promise that The Car will look after you and the Voices on the radio will help) and when you do so you end up... In a walking sim. Where you walk through a bunch of TV's and listen to some ghosts talk. /12

Staying would also make all the work those voices have done to save you moot - one of them DIES helping you, (though that had felt a bit rushed)! So, the dilemma seemed obvious to me. You'd get to the end and get a 'escape or stay' sort of option. /11

It even starts to communicate with you with a cute screen that waves and sends hearts when you get in! So of course you as player would want to stay playing and engaging with car! Staying dooms the character (who is called driver and has utterly no features/voice/aspect). /10

That's the catch - to play the game you doom your player, enforcing the whole bound to the car thing. You the player are going to get attached to your car! I have heard reviews talking about it! You look after it, you patch it up, you upgrade it. /9

So anyway, I am through most of the first third of the game and the ending seems obvious to me: you are going to have to choose. Do you stay with the car that will eventually kill you? Or do you leave and end the game? /8

This game 100% has the best set of worldbuilding notes I have ever seen There is something about the way the notes are set up and the mix of written & audio logs that makes finding these engaging instead of frustrating or a slog. A+ writing there. Also the voice acting is beautifully done. /7

to repair the car and upgrade it so you can explore further and further. As you go and gain more experience, new tools and abilities unlock to help you go further. As you explore you find audio recordings, notes, and even scanning anomalies will unlock logs and worldbuilding. /6

and learn about the creatures - called Anomalies - that inhabit the area. You are set up in one of those Voices (Oppy's) garage which is in a stable area. Your job is to drive into unstable areas, chart them, collect resources (survive) and come back to the garage /5

As the story progresses you learn more about the Exclusion Zone, as it is considered. You are trapped here, as it is very difficult to get in or out of (plus the whole psychic car bond). The folks talking to you are scientists studying the space to figure out "what happened" /4

You will go (eventually) insane and drive off into the sunset (which is to say an area of extreme radiation and doom known as the well). You have this explained to you by three voices over the radio who are all different personalities with different backgrounds who agree to help you. /3

Obviously, spoilers are going to be involved here.
So the game basically traps you in an area that's Bermuda Triangle meets Area 51 meets Eldritch Horror. You have a car that you are informed is maybe sorta sentient and is 100% psychically attached to you. If you don't break the attachment? /2